gestion of the Marquis of Worcester in 1665, to the steam plough of Fowler in 1854. The employment of gas as an illuminating power is also traced from Clayton in 1739, as having first suggested its use, to its universal application in the lighting of towns and private dwellings. The "Electric Telegraph" embraces every phase of its application, from the experiment of Watson at Westminster, July 14, 1747, and at Shooter's Hill, August 5, in the same year, down to its management, as an universal means of communication all over the world, being assumed by the Government in July 1868-1870.

The biographical portion constitutes necessarily the largest part of the work, and comprehends the names of persons of eminence, both ancient and modern, in every part of the world. Mythic names and stories are omitted, or indicated as such. Works of art or literature, whose dates cannot be ascertained, are necessarily omitted, as not falling within the range of a date-book. The compilers have made use of Ussher's chronology because of its traditional authority, rather than from a conviction that it can be depended upon for correctness. But they have placed it in juxtaposition with whatever other dates are adopted by men of acknowledged competence to form a correct judgment. In cases where a name is common to a place and a person, the place takes the precedence. The names of sovereigns also precede others; a strictly alphabetical order being observed, except in cases of noble families, where the order of succession to a title seemed more convenient. Where a numerous series of connected events is contained in a few years, as in the case of America (War of Independence), those of each year have been arranged in separate paragraphs, headed by their general dates. Events and names in English history, of course, possess the deepest interest for the English reader, and have therefore received a proportionate attention, but without the exclusion of any other matter of importance.

Although strictly avoiding politics, as involving the expression of opinions which would be inconsistent in a work of the kind, the authors have, nevertheless, traced the course of legislation from the earliest periods to the present time. To do this thoroughly has involved a good deal of research, the result of which is elaborately set forth; for instance, in the articles " Aliens," " County Courts," "Lunatic Asylums and Lunatics," "Marriage," "Newspapers," "Irish Church," "Roman Catholics," &c., &c., are full and complete accounts of the legislation, ancient or modern, adopted for their establishment, management, or guidance, and a reference to the date-book will enable the student to turn at once to a more general history for the required information. An appendix is given, comprising the period whilst the work was in the press, bringing the information down to the end of April of the present year (1872), and including the articles "Professor Maurice," "Lord Mayo," " Mazzini," &c.

After the death of Mr. Woodward, the supervision of the MS. was entrusted to the hands of the Rev. G. W. Cox, M.A., author of the Mythology of the Aryan Nations, and editor of Brande's Dictionary of

Science, Literature, and Art, whose qualifications for the task are well known by literary men.

In a few feeling words at the close of the preface reference is made by Mr. Cates to the memory of his deceased colleague in the work, and to the friendship existing between them for upwards of twenty years. The result of their joint labour is a work of datal reference, full, comprehensive, and concise a work long wanted, and now at last admirably supplied.

The National and Domestic History of England. By William Hickman Smith Aubrey. In Three Volumes. Vol. I. London Jas. Hagger. 1871.

WE have received the first volume of Mr. Aubrey's History of England, a large octavo of some 800 pages, and are able to congratulate him upon a great undertaking well begun. He has set before himself the task of writing a history of the English people, in which the affairs of State shall only occupy that proportionate space which they actually do occupy in a nation's life. The true sphere of history has been sufficiently pointed out by Hallam and Arnold, by Macaulay and Carlyle, and we are not likely to have any more of so-called histories in which the only figures visible are those of kings, generals, and statesmen. It is understood at last that the main current of national life in any age is to be found in the marketplace, in men's homes, in the occupations and pursuits of the majority, in the beliefs and principles on which the average life of people rested, or by which they sought what seemed to them to be best worth living for. Much has been done in the right direction since Carlyle wrote, forty years ago,-" The thing I want to see is not Redbook lists, and Court Calendars, and Parliamentary Registers, but the Life of Man in England; what men did, thought, suffered, enjoyed; the forms, especially the spirit, of their terrestrial existence, its outward environment, its inward principle; how and what it was; whence it proceeded, and whither it was tending." This passage very fairly represents the spirit in which the book before us is written. Extraordinary pains are taken to illustrate manners and customs, dress, household economy, the relations of the rich and poor, the state of agriculture and trade, of religion, literature, and popular liberties. On all these and similar matters the information given is copious and well-arranged. It is not to disparage the author's labours, but simply to indicate the plan of his work, that we refer to the fact that it is in great part a compilation, having both the advantages and drawbacks belonging to one. There appears to us to be a sufficiently independent examination of the Statutes of the Realm, the Rolls of Parliament, the Charters of ancient Corporations, the early Chroniclers, and the other indispensable sources of historical knowledge; but there are also such frequent extracts from modern historians as to render the term compilation not inapplicable. We will give a few

examples. The introduction contains a passage from Mr. Froude's Oxford Essays on the Character of the English People; from Dr. Henry On the Chief Design of a History of Great Britain; and from the Edinburgh Review "On the Qualifications of the Historian." On the Saxon and Latin elements in the English language we have an extract from Sir James Mackintosh; on the character of Becket, passages from Milman's Latin Christianity and Stanley's Historical Memorials of Canterbury. We do not think it necessary to vindicate a plan which has a good deal to recommend it, is undisguisedly adopted, and is carried out with much judgment and skill. Mr. Aubrey's use of the older authorities is particularly effective, as, for instance, in the narrative of the Norman invasion. The whole story of the battle of Hastings is capitally told. The picturesque details and lively poetical descriptions of the chronicler are reproduced, and, without literal translation, the quaint archaic style gives to the history an appropriate colouring. With the judgments expressed on historical characters and events we can, for the most part, cordially agree. They are candid and sensible, and bear witness to the author's love of liberty and thorough regard for religion and morals. A valuable feature of the book is that the principal historical documents are given either wholly or in part, and thoroughly commented on. The "Great Charter" is shown in a reduced fac simile, and accompanied by a complete English rendering, and explanations of the more important clauses. The illustrations are numerous, and with the exception of the steel-plates, for which much cannot be said, are all that can be desired. We hope that the publication of this history will soon be brought to a successful conclusion. If the two volumes yet to come fulfil the promise given by the first, Mr. Aubrey will have produced a history of England for general readers superior to anything of the same class now in existence. It will be a distinct and valuable addition to the library of any household, more particularly where there are young people ready to be introduced, under wise and genial guidance, to the history of their own country. This service the author is abundantly qualified to perform.

The Life of John Goodwin, sometime Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, and Vicar of St. Stephen's, Colemanstreet, London, in the Seventeenth Century. Comprising an Account of the Controversies in which he was Engaged in Defence of Universal Toleration in Matters of Religion, and of the Universal Redemption of Mankind by the Death of Christ; with a Review of several Public Transactions in Great Britain, during the Civil Wars and the Commonwealth. By Thomas Jackson. 2nd Edi tion, greatly improved. London: Longmans and Co. 1872. JOHN GOODWIN needed a biographer who had a sufficient admiration for his abilities and his virtues to be willing to undergo the toil

of searching amidst unfriendly records for the incidents of his life, and of duly estimating his stained character and his numerous writings. Such a biographer is Mr. Jackson, than whom few living men know more of the literature and the writers of the seventeenth century. Fifty years ago the first edition of this work was printed. It was written under the inspiration of a loving regard for Goodwin's writings. Confessedly faulty and imperfect, it has undergone, after so long an interval, a complete revision and enlargement. As a biography it is highly commendable, succinct without being scant; full but not inflated. The portrait of the man, the character of his writings, and the expressive, almost grim features of his times, are sketched with skill and fidelity, and in clear, forcible, and vigorous English. It is the writing of one who is anxious to redeem the life and reputation of a friend; but it is as faithful to truth as to friendship. The character of Goodwin is bravely vindicated from the vile aspersions cast upon it by ignorant or prejudiced persons; but his errors, mainly political, are neither disguised nor palliated; though the hand of friendship can scarcely forbear throwing a thin gauze of apology over the slightly distorted figure. It is alike more honourable and more useful to morals to declare truthfully the errors of men than by a fiction to dissemble and hide them. The man who, at the risk of losing reputation, liberty, and even life, could come forward in troublous times as the fearless champion of universal toleration in matters of religion, deserved such a memorial as this. It was his honour to stand in the forefront of that great contest, bearing his noble testimony for Truth against the dominant opinions of the day; to be followed in quieter hours by Jeremy Taylor, Milton and Locke, more able advocates, but not more brave. This man of heroic heart and robust intellect, of elevated character and racy speech, was not only the champion of religious freedom, but the redeemer of the doctrine of universal redemption. Such was the man whom his antagonist, Dr. Owen, described "as a person whom his worth, pains, diligence and opinions, and the contest wherein, on their account, he hath publicly engaged, have delivered him from being the object of any ordinary thoughts or expressions. Nothing not great, not considerable, not some way eminent, is by any spoken of him, either consenting with him or dissenting from him."

An effect of the publication of this memoir will be, we hope, to draw attention anew to one of the best of the Puritan writers and to encourage a regard for a class of literature which is deserving of a very careful and considerate study.

Essays on Eastern Questions. By William Gifford Palgrave, Author of "Central and Eastern Arabia." London: Macmillan and Co. 1872.

THESE essays attracted a good deal of attention as they appeared at intervals during the last two or three years. Mr. Palgrave's know

Literary Notices.

503 ledge of the East, and more particularly of the Arabic-speaking populations, is such as very few Englishmen possess. As a writer on Eastern questions, he commands a field where he has few rivals, and possibly no superior. As a diplomatist, a linguist, and a traveller, he has had exceptional opportunities of becoming acquainted with the actual inner life of Mahometan countries, and his style is so clear and spirited as to make his books the pleasantest of reading. On the subject of Mahometanism in its present relation to the world, most people will confess themselves not very well informed. Mr. Palgrave contends that Englishmen are not merely ignorant but positively misinformed and mistaken on the subject. The general impression in Europe is that Islam is a waning power in the earth; that, long since impotent for aggression, it is at length growing feeble in its resistance to the many hostile influences that are abroad, and that its not very distant overthrow may be certainly predicted. In all this, says Mr. Palgrave, we are wholly wrong. Islam is full of vitality; it has been the subject of vast and widespread "revival," not only to the extent of arresting decay and restoring its ancient spirit, but of diffusing itself through a vigorous propagandism in many fresh parts of the world. "From him that sitteth upon the throne,' the Sultan of Constantinople, 'Abd-el-'Azeez himself, down to the poorest hammal' or street porter on the wharves, the 'revival' embraces every class, every nationality within the Ottoman Empire, north and south, Turks, Turkomans, Koordes, Arabs, with their respective sub-branches and cross-races; the recent Circassian exiles, who, on their first arrival, hardly knew a morning prayer or a verse of the Kura'n, are now in Muslim exactitude and fervour inferior to none; and while all the temporal advantages offered by European protection and support, not to mention the direct persuasion and indirect subsidy of well-to-do missionaries, can scarcely, or indeed, more truly not at all, procure a single convert from Islam to any form of Christianity, Greek, Armenian, Catholic, or Protestant, on the other hand, a reverse process yearly enrols a very sensible number from one or another, or all of these sects, under the unity of the Green Banner. This in Turkish Asia; while from Africa reports reach us of whole negro tribes abandoning their hereditary fetich for the religion called of Abraham; and, after all due allowance made for distance and exaggeration, the current idea, that the Libyan Peninsula will soon be, what its best portions in North and East already are, a land of Islam, seems by no means destitute of probability." It is hardly worth while to challenge the details of the "probability" referred to, or else we might ask whether, in the future of the Libyan Peninsula, the European colonies, which, from its southern extremity, are continually pushing farther into the interior, have no part assigned to them, or whether it is supposed that, in this latter-day, races of European, or more particularly English, origin will enter the fold of Islam. Among the principal signs of the renewed life of Mahometanism, Mr. Palgrave instances the following:-First, the change that has come over the