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The Dictionary of National Biography,' was introduced to the world with a good many flourishes and trumpeting to all the echoes; but we can scarcely say that the promise of its prospectuses has been carried out. The scope is no doubt large, and the process of production laborious. Mr Leslie Stephen speaks with heartfelt sympathy of Carlyle's troubles when he "first began serious

time.

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the wild, rieving, riding Borderers, in all the recklessness of a district swept by perpetual feud; the dark depths and heights of the Highlands, so imperfectly known, -is set before us with the pictorial skill for which Mr Skelton is well known. Nor is it only the background of national scenery which is prepared before the rising of the curtain for the great action of the piece. The touching sketch of Mary's mother; the truculent work in the autumn of 1840. figure of Knox-about whom, with He was now making acquaintance the veneration which we think with every patriot should feel for that great man, we may hereafter pluck a crow with Mr Skelton; the fine and subtle picture of Lethington himself,--are all, from the author's point of view, most important and worthy of attention; while the portrait of Mary, indicated so delicately by contemporary pens in Mr Skelton's skilful framework, will delight all Mary's lovers, and move even the most prejudiced on the other side. Mr Skelton is very severe upon Elizabeth, but that, perhaps, was to be looked for. Lethington, his hero, he compares, to some extent, with the late Lord Beaconsfield. The chief points of resemblance appear to be subtlety, charm of manner and language, tact, and steadfast adherence to his purpose. Justum et tenacem propositi virum. Mr Skelton does not seem to lay much stress upon the first adjective, and perhaps he is right.

Altogether we have here a volume quite worthy of the writer's high reputation. We may grumble because we have not got the whole book at once, but there are more unhappy states of mind than that of looking forward to a good thing, and perhaps for the second volume hope will give us patience to wait.

1The Dictionary of National Biography. Elder, & Co.

He had never been enslaved to a biographical dictionary; and the dreary work of investigating dull records provoked loud lamentations, and sometimes despair." These words are probably but an echo of the accomplished editor's personal sentiments. There has certainly been no lack of hard. work in the preparation of the Dictionary.' It is to the outside spectator a goodly and an inspiriting sight to behold Mr Stephen and his merry men gathering in the Reading-room of the British Museum, pouring over catalogues with a zeal and enthusiasm which do equal honour to their heads and hearts, and wrestling with mighty tomes even until evening. The fare provided by these literary bees is no doubt nourishing food, but it is not always appetising. It is true that the Dictionary of National Biography' is not a book which is meant to be read as one would read a novel of M. Gaboriau or Mr Louis Stevenson. Dr Wendell Holmes tells an amusing story of a man whose fragmentary acquaintance with many wide subjects was remarkable, and who showed minute knowledge on some points, together with extraordinary ignorance on other

Edited by Leslie Stephen. Smith,

cognate matters; a mystery explained by the discovery that he had closely studied the first volume of a new encyclopædia, which unfortunately only went so far as "Araguay." Thus it happened that, while well up in all the facts concerning the Alps and Andes, he was wholly destitute of information regarding Mount Ararat; and though thoroughly grounded in agriculture, was ignorant of the very rudiments of gardening. Such students, however, are rare. It may be that some devout readers of the National Biography,' become acquainted with Cardonnel, while Marlborough is to them as yet an unknown quantity; that others grow into knowledge of Queen Caroline, to whom George II. is still an indistinct and almost mythical personage; or follow the fortunes of Carstares before they have begun to connect any definite idea with the locution "William of Orange." But this is a case which it is scarcely necessary to take into account. As a book of reference, the present work is no doubt trustworthy and full of sound information. But the same may be said of other works of the same description and in justification of its existence, it ought to have been something more.

The volume before us, though as a whole deficient in interest, contains, however, as the previous volumes also do, some biographical articles of undeniable merit from a literary point of view. It goes without saying that Mr Leslie Stephen's own essays will be found thoroughly worth reading. To the present volume he contributes, besides two less important articles, a short account of Carlyle, which is chiefly remarkable as a wonderfully brilliant and lucid piece of precis-writing; for it is no small feat to condense Carlyle's life, with all its controversies, into a compass suitable

for a work of this kind. Still, what man can do towards such an object Mr Leslie Stephens has done; and, though we could point out a few slight inaccuracies, and lament a slightly unsympathetic tone, his "Carlyle" is a masterpiece of clear, terse, and concentrated writing. We are glad to perceive that Mr Stephen does not end his minute account of the greatest prose-writer of our day without expressing his opinion in respect to Mr Froude's interpretation of the trust left in his hands-a condemnation which is decided, although very mild in tone. Mr Stephen's other articles deal with Henry Carey, the poet, the author of "Sally in our Alley," and possibly of "God save the Queen"; and with Christopher Cartwright, a Puritan divine.

Another literary great gun is Mr Goldwin Smith, who has been engaged for this occasion only to supply personal recollections of the late Lord Cardwell, whom he has honoured with a panegyric which is neither tedious nor fulsome. A weighty historical authority has been secured in Dr S. R. Gardiner, dear to the student who loves exactitude, and knows that in this author he has found a historian far too ponderous to be inaccurate. Dr Gardiner presents us with an account of Carr, the unworthy favourite of James I., which is, no doubt, as true as gospel, and certainly as prosy as any commentary. It is strange, indeed, that a historian can so rarely be entertaining if he is accurate, or accurate if he is entertaining. Perhaps it is better so; perhaps if we had any one writer who combined the enteriaining qualities of Mr Froude with the exactitude of Dr Gardiner, our excessive good fortune would excite the envy of the gods. In the meanwhile, we must be content to admire those excellences

which the latter historian does show in this biography. The style thereof is unattractive; but there is a naïve absence of all false modesty in the manner in which Dr Gardiner refers to his own works. Hardly a statement is brought forward which is not supported by a reference to Gardiner's History of England,' which valuable work is also mentioned at the end as almost the only authority to be consulted on the subject. Dr Gardiner is, of course, perfectly right. No doubt his history is about the best authority upon the period it describes, and there is absolutely no reason why a man should not admire his own works, especially when they deserve it: but they don't usually say so.

indeed, are to be found as thick as blackberries in this volume. Besides the three we have already mentioned, we have a brief and unpleasant account of Catherine of France, the queen of Henry V., from Mr S. L. Lee; and a lengthy one of Catherine of Braganza, by Professor Tout. More worthy of attention is the life of Queen Caroline of Anspach, by Professor A. W. Ward, who gives a striking narrative of the life of a queen who, in personal political power and ability, was hardly inferior to Queen Elizabeth, and sets clearly before us the queer modus vivendi between a couple who seem to have only been really agreed upon one point

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their common detestation of their eldest son. The history of the unA more entertaining writer, fortunate Caroline Matilda, Queen and yet one to whose exactitude of Denmark, is also presented to very little exception can be taken, us by the same authority in as is Mr James Gairdner, who is lifelike and interesting a narrative, naturally intrusted with the bio- though the erring queen gets scant graphies which fall in the period grace from her cruelly precise bioof Henry VIII. The chief of grapher. The list of unfortunate these is his account of Catherine queens is completed by Caroline, of Arragon, which, we are sure, Princess of Wales, who is described will be read with great interest with a kind of unconscious irony both by those who know anything as "queen of George IV.," while about it and those who don't. Mr her predecessor and namesake figGairdner writes, not as an indif- ures as Queen of Great Britain ferent historian to whom all these and Ireland." Her case is fairly matters long by-past are only in- enough stated by Mr John Ashteresting insomuch as they throw ton. It is singular that of all these light on the manners and customs queens, there is not one who seems of the time; but with a vivid per- to have had any but the most sonal interest in the destiny of transient gleams of happiness. that unfortunate princess, which Of the remaining biographies, few affects the reader with a like sym- are more interesting than the pathy. The case of the queen is accounts of William Carstares by simply and plainly stated, and Dr Æneas Mackay; while some conveys in itself such an indict praise is due to Mr Hunt's Life ment against Henry as the bitter- of Canute.' The latter warmed est partisan historian is rarely able our heart in its beginning by the to bring. We have from the same discovery of the name of Canute hand a sketch of Catherine How- spelt with an a, as it used to be ard and one of Catherine Parr, in our innocent childhood; but both sharers in the fatal dignity in a few lines we discovered our of the English Crown-matrimonial mistake, and found the familiar in these stormy days. Queens, name reduced into an abom

inable amalgamation of conso- the abstruse researches of Pronants, alike unpronounceable and unsightly. To be sure, as a true disciple of the gospel according to Mr Freeman, it was perhaps necessary that the biographer should speak of the Danish hero under the uneuphonious appellation of Cnut. Would this were all After the number of centuries during which St Chad has been held in monosyllabic veneration, is it not hard that he should be obliged to return to the original uncouthness of Ceadda? or is there any man among us who can lay his hand upon his heart and say, with truth, that he can pronounce such extraordinary names as Ceolfrith or Cenwall? It is really absurd that, after the thorough exposuse to which Mr Frederic Harrison subjected this ridiculous affectation in a contemporary a short time ago, people should go on requiring us to break our jaws over Anglicising of all names, which seem to be adopted really for no other reason than that they were not used before, for the studious Anglicising of all names in Latin languages is another essential principle of the same school.

We have spoken of certain biographies in the volume before us as deserving of high praise; and that articles which would be remarkable in any collection are to be found also in the preceding volumes, is no doubt the case. Yet this not enough to render the work a unique one, as was proposed and expected. It contains a greater number of biographies of all kinds of persons than any work yet published? Probably it does. Certainly there are lives of all kinds of persons, of all ages and all classes, and we might almost say all countries. From

fessor Creighton into the history of St William de Carilef, or the still earlier antiquarian "howkings" which have produced Mr Shuckburgh's article on Caractacus, buwn to the lives of Lord Frederick Cavendish and the fiendish leader of his murderers, James Carey; of Dr Carpenter and Sir Louis Cavagnari, which seem to have been chiefly compiled from the Pall Mall Gazette' and the Illustrated London News,'-the roll of personages to be mentioned is full and complete. Saint or sinner, no one is too high or too low. Ben Caunt occupies as importont a place as St Chad; and proper mention is made of Bampfylde Moore Carew. Even the Dutch scholar Casaubon and the French rebel Cavalier must be mentioned, because they had some connection with England. But with all this it is scarcely a satisfactory work. Considerable information is vouchsafed to us concerning the great unknown of our country. We shudder when the kind hand of the biographer points out to us the atrocious blunder committed by some Heaven-forsaken ignoramus who confused Nicholas Carvell with James Calfhill. But we doubt whether the labours of all these gentlemen will succeed in producing anything more than a very ordinary book of reference, with a good article here and there,-exactly as all previous compilers of such works have done before them.

We look forward, not without trepidation, to the flood of "Jubilee" literature that will overflow our table during the year on which we have happily entered. One of the first, and one that will not be the last in importance, is Captain Trotter's History of India under Queen Victoria' -may she live to

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1 History of India under Queen Victoria. By L. J. Trotter. London: W. H. Allen & Co.

1886.

celebrate her jubilee as Empress of Hindustan Captain Trotter is already well known as an Indian historian. His new work is, however, the most ambitious to which he has put his hand. The fifty years during which the Queen has ruled over India cover more history than any preceding century in the East of which we have record. Events of the highest import succeed each other as rapidly as the scenes are shifted in a theatre. Beginning with the lurid glories, not unmixed with dishonour, of our earlier Afghan wars, Captain Trotter leads us from annexation to annexation-Sindh, the Punjab, Oudh-until we find ourselves struggling for life in the death-grips of the Mutiny; and then to the wonderful re-establishment of British influence, and that renaissance of Indian progress which is destined to end no one can tell where, and carry ourselves no one knows whither. The events which have happened in India under Victoria's reign are of sufficient interest to make their bare recital interesting; and when a writer who is as much master of his subject as is Captain Trotter records them, the result cannot fail to be readable.

There are peculiar difficulties in writing Indian history, and though we fully admit the excellence of Captain Trotter's India under Victoria,' we are not quite sure that he has succeeded in completely mastering them. Fortunately for the Indian Viceroy, no officious member of his Legislature can "beg to ask" for any information about what is going on; and although inquisitive members of the Opposition at home may succeed in elicit ing statements, or even drawing out a Blue-book, still it is a "far cry to Lochow," and the real sources of Indian history generally remain

entombed in Viceregal bureaux and secretariat pigeon-holes. Fifty years from his death was the time prescribed by the great Marquis of Dalhousie during which his papers were to be sealed from the gaze of biographer or historian. Only seven-and-twenty years of this period have already expired; but when the seals are broken, we confidently expect that even such a complete account as Captain Trotter gives of the annexation of the Punjab and Oudh will have to be rewritten, while we shall be much surprised if his opinions regarding these transactions are not considerably modified. We may say once for all, that though we can trust to Captain Trotter's facts, we generally find ourselves out of sympathy with his views. Our previous acquaintance with his writings scarcely prepared us to find in him a eulogist of the Ilbert Bill; or of Lord Ripon's pro-native, sentimental administration; and we trust, by the time when he comes to expand the postscript in which he dismisses the career of the late GovernorGeneral, he will have reconsidered the subject. It is not every AngloIndian who, when he returns to settle in his native country, can maintain unweakened the impres sions which he formed in the East. Nor would it be well if it were so, for Anglo-Indians have a tendency to grow narrow and illiberal, as become members of the small white oligarchy who rule two hundred millions of dusky skins. But we see too often that a remarkable-indeed we may say a miraculous-conversation overtakes many old Indians when they find themselves once more at home. Their ayes become noes, their noes ayes; they surrender all the convictions which personal knowledge and experience had wrought__in them, in favour of the too often

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