without the necessity of seeking any further assistance from his family. But the most complete evidence of the poverty which weighed down the energies and hampered the progress of the poorer students at Oxford and Cambridge will be found in Mr. Grosart's reprint of The Spending of the Money of Robert Nowell.' It abounds in references to undergraduates who would have been unable to perfect their university training had they not been sustained by the charity of the City merchant. Through his liberality many of the most famous writers in English literature and many of the most learned scholars that flourished in the reigns of Elizabeth and James were cheered by welcome gifts of money or of cloth for their garments. The name of Launcelot Andrewes is but a few pages removed from that of Richard Hooker; the gifts conferred on Andrew Downes, the most illustrious Greek scholar of the day, are quickly followed by those which gladdened the heart of Hugh Broughton, the Hebraist. Without the aid derived from a merchant's munificence, whose name, but for the preservation of this record of his bounty, would long ere this have perished with his gravestone, the annals of classical and theological learning in this country might have lacked many of their chief ornaments. The most efficient aid in educating the children of the poor and in fitting them for a life of more advanced study at Oxford used to be found in the grammar schools which flourished throughout England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These institutions were planted in almost every corporate town in the country. They were attended by the sons of the squire and the tradesman, sitting side by side on the same bench, and they were presided over by university graduates who had themselves profited by similar advantages. The increased facilities for travelling and the extension of education have for years drawn the children of opulent parents away from the grammar schools of their native districts to the great public schools. The father who kept his son at the school where his parents were educated before him saw his son's prospects sacrificed to his laudable feeling of local attachment. It is impossible for a single master buried in a remote country town to succeed in competition with the masters of the great public schools, who are well versed in all the freshest tricks of teaching, and whose zeal for study is sharpened by social intercourse with congenial minds. The withdrawal of the sons of the wealthier parents lowered the standard of learning in grammar schools. There was a gradual but constant diminution in the number of the pupils seeking instruction in the dead languages of Greece

and Rome, and the master, after a brief struggle of inclination against expediency, recognised the necessity of making what is styled a commercial education' the chief aim of his labours. Most of the grammar schools of England have now ceased to fulfil the objects of their foundation. Many of them have been deprived by the University Commission of the scholarships which were formerly reserved for their pupils alone. Even when these institutions succeeded in retaining their endowments it has not unfrequently happened that for years together no student has come forward to claim their valuable privileges. The change in the character of these ancient foundations forms an additional, too often an insurmountable, hindrance to the advancement of the children of the poor. Time will no doubt bring to light a remedy for this evil. Some of the dormant scholarships may possibly be transferred to the board schools of the large country towns, and may supply the most intelligent pupils with the advantages of education at the universities. Their number may even be augmented by the liberality of the wealthier educational reformers of future ages. But many generations will have passed away before this desirable result will have been attained, and meanwhile the loss of such aids to advancement presses with keen severity on the classes which profited most largely by their existence in the past.

ART. III.-Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, East Indies, China, and Japan, preserved in Her Majesty's Public Record Office and elsewhere. Edited by W. NOEL SAINSBURY, Esq. 3 vols., 1513-1616, 1617-1621, 1622-1624. London.

THE

HE volumes before us are an example of the rich fruits of recent research. Much has been written with regard to the rise and growth of our Asiatic power, yet it is no disparagement to past historians of the subject to say that this work of Mr. Sainsbury's will oblige them to admit the incompleteness of their labours and to revise their volumes. Without bricks it is idle to think of building; and until the Record Office, in the exercise of a wise discretion, resolved upon having the papers relating to the establishment of our Indian empire made public, no material existed from which a full and authentic account could be derived of the development of our commercial system with the East. These calendars, and those that are to follow, will fill up a gap in the list of

our authorities which has too long been allowed to remain blank. Thanks to Mr. Sainsbury, we have now a minute and detailed narrative of the voyages of discovery which took place in the reign of Elizabeth; of the establishment of our trade with India, which was one of the results of the spirit of exploration then rife amongst Englishmen; and of the numerous obstacles which had to be surmounted before the enterprise was crowned with success. With these volumes before us we

see Frobisher vainly striving, as so many have striven after him, to discover the North-West Passage, and to unite those hyperborean regions in commercial intercourse with the South. We read how our East India Company originated, the prosperity it achieved, and the animosities it excited. We are taken behind the scenes of Eastern courts, and watch the intrigues of rival trading associations for special support and patronage. We are introduced to that mysterious personage of the seventeenth century, the Great Mogul, and are made acquainted with his tastes and habits. We see the bitter jealousy of Spain and Portugal at the success of our factors. We learn how false was the amity of the Dutch, and how terrible was the tragedy which was the end of their treacherous friendship. Indeed, there is little connected with the rise and progress of our commercial relations with the East which will not be found narrated here with a breadth and a fulness that leave nothing to be desired. What the Calendar of Mr. Brewer is to Mr. Froude's history of the Reformation, what the Calendar of Mr. Hamilton is to Mr. Rawson Gardiner's history of the Stuarts, this Calendar of Mr. Sainsbury will be to the future historian of our Asiatic empire.

The volumes open with the suggestions made for the exploration of a route to Eastern Asia. During the early part of the sixteenth century the minds of men engaged in commerce were much occupied in the discovery of a north-west or northeast passage to India or Cathay.' The impetus which the discovery of America gave to maritime exploration had stimulated the greed of all English mariners and merchants to obtain a closer and easier connexion with the fabulous treasures of the East. The first to attempt the task was the Worshipful Master Thorne, in anno 1527,' who, having conceived 'a vehement desire to attempt the navigation towards the ' north,' endeavoured to persuade Henry VIII. to take the 'discovery in hand,' by drawing a brilliant picture of the rich countries to be found, and of the precious silks and jewels that would thus be brought into England. His vehement desire' was, however, not gratified. The result of the voyage 'in

'tended for the discovery of Cathay,' organised by Sebastian Cabot, who had obtained from Edward VI. letters to the 'kings, princes, and other potentates inhabiting the north-east 'part of the world towards the mighty empire of Cathay,' is well known. The expedition 'did set forth the 10th day of May, 1553, under the command of Sir Hugh Willoughby,' but never returned home. Sir Hugh, after being tossed about by the billows of the Atlantic for seven months, perished with all his crew in a river or haven called Arzina, in Lapland, near unto Kegor.' The fierce religious war then waged at home prevented Queen Mary from occupying herself with the hopes and suggestions of her seafaring subjects; but on the accession of her sister, who was known to be interested in all geographical questions, a host of adventurers came into the field. From the petitions and memorials among the State papers of this time we see how keenly the nation desired to attempt the discovery, and how lightly the dangers attendant upon the effort were regarded. Among the mass of documents upon this subject, the petition of one Anthony Jenkynson occupies a conspicuous place. This man had already made. several voyages to Russia and Persia, and he now implored her Majesty that he might venture his life in the attempt to prove a passage by the north-east to Cathay and the East Indies.' He urged the Queen 'to set forward this famous 'discovery of that renowned Cathay,' and doubted not that 'by the traffic her Majesty will grow to infinite riches, and 'be accounted the famous Princess of the world.' He enumerated the advantages that would accrue to English commerce if this region of Cathay might be discovered and passage 'found thither by the north.' In his opinion the speculations ' of cosmographers' on the dangers of the navigation of the northerly seas and of the intensity of the cold that had to be endured were much exaggerated. He made no doubt, from his experience in these northerly regions,' that the seas and lands were as temperate when the sun was in the north tropic as at home; the travels of the Portugals and Spaniards upon 'unknown coasts should encourage us to travel and search for 'this passage.' He did not wholly dissent, he said, from those who held that there was a passage by the north-west, but he had no fear of finding one by the north-east, for he has 'conferred with divers Cathayens and the inhabitants of other countries very far north, near whereunto he guesses the 'passage to be. From the current of the tide and the remains of animal life to be found in those regions he was perfectly assured of the existence of this passage. Other reasons he

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could allege, only he feared to be tedious; and he concluded with the hope that he might be employed in the enterprise, and to venture my life as fervent zeal moveth me, which if I may live to accomplish, I shall attain to the sum of my ' desire.' No definite answer being returned to this petition, Jenkynson associated himself with Sir Humphrey Gylberte, and determined to undertake an expedition at his own cost and independent of all State aid, provided the Queen would grant him the following privileges: That no one was to go to any part of the world through the passage to be discovered by him, upon pain of confiscation of body, goods, and lands,' and that he and his heirs were to trade custom free for ever. These conditions were well received, Secretary Cecil commented favourably upon them, and the request of Jenkynson would undoubtedly have been answered in the affirmative had it not been opposed by the Muscovy Company, which considered its interests affected by the proposed undertaking. This hostility was fatal to the sum of Jenkynson's desire, and the matter dropped until it was again vigorously taken up by one of the most active of that little band of navigators whose exploits have shed an additional lustre upon the brilliant reign of Elizabeth.

Of the details of Martin Frobisher's voyages the volumes before us afford information not to be obtained from the accounts either of Christopher Hall or Captain Best, printed by Hakluyt. It is one of the special charms of State paper evidence to take us behind the scenes of history, and show us, if not a new reading of the play, at least how the actors dress for their respective parts, what are the feuds and jealousies of the company, and how painstaking is the art by which the public is to be deceived. Nor are these disclosures, which add a piquancy to narrative, wanting on the present occasion. Thanks to the friendly guidance of Mr. Sainsbury, we see Frobisher busy amongst the adventurers who crowded the anterooms of Whitehall to obtain State help for their private enterprises; we learn what were the inducements which prompted him to court the perils of Arctic navigation, who were his chief opponents, and the names of all who freely subscribed to his ventures; we listen to the carping criticisms and malicious constructions of those whose designs he had defeated; we read the log-book of the voyage, and we watch with amusement the growth and development of the quarrel that soon sprang up between himself and his former champion, Michael Lok. After months of anxious preparation and frequent delays for lack of money,' the little expedition in quest of the strait to be discovered