A HISTORY OF ENGLAND in the Eighteenth Century. By WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE LECKY. Vols. V. and VI. small 8vo, pp. 602 and 61I. New York. 1887. D. Apple

ton & Co.

Mr Lecky could not have found a period in all British history better suited to his masterly pen than the ten years following 1784, with which these later volumes are concerned. The triumphant accession of William Pitt to office, and his character and administration, form the starting point from which a multitude of attractive themes fall into line and crowd each other with surprising rapidity and in consummate order, holding the reader's intense interest until the final page is reached. The evidences of unwearied industry on the part of the author of this great work are impressive. He has not only acquired the extensive knowledge of events and affairs necessary for this marvelously well sketched picture of English history, but he has (by no miraculous instinct) prepared himself through untiring study for the grasping of his material, with all its wealth and variety, and the adjusting of it in exact accordance with the severest requirements of literary art. His style is graceful, clear, forcible, and natural, and his work as a whole is by far the best on the subject that has been produced within the century.

Mr. Lecky brings all the statesmen of prominence who were factors in the movements of the period into a strong light. He says, "It is possible for a man to be immeasurably superior to his fellows in eloquence, in knowledge, in dexterity of argument, in moral energy, and in popular sympathy, and at the same time plainly inferior to the average of educated men in soundness and sobriety of judgment. The best man of business is not always the most enlightened statesman, and a great power of foreseeing and understanding the tendencies of his time may be combined with a great incapacity for managing men or for dealing with daily difficulties as they arise. No English statesman conducted the affairs of the nation at home and abroad, for a considerable period, more skillfully or more prosperously than Walpole. But he undoubtedly lowered the moral tone of public life, and he scarcely left a trace of constructive statesmanship on the Statute Book. Chatham was one of the greatest of orators, one of the greatest of war ministers, and his general views of policy often exhibited a singular genius and sagacity; but he had scarcely any talent for internal administration, and he was utterly incapable of party management. Peel far surpassed all his contemporaries in the masterly skill and comprehensiveness with which he could frame

his legislative measures, and in the commanding knowledge and ability with which he could carry them through Parliament; but he showed so little of the prescience of a statesman that on the three most important questions of the daythe questions of Catholic Emancipation, Parliamentary Reform, and Free Trade-his mistakes were disastrous to his country and almost ruinous to his party; and although he appeared for a time one of the greatest of parliamentary leaders, he left his party dislocated, impotent, and discredited. The most remarkable of all instances of the combination of the more dazzling attributes of a parliamentary statesman is to be found in the young minister elected in 1784. His position at this moment was one of the most enviable and most extra ordinary in history. With one brief interval he continued to be Prime Minister of England until his death. For nearly nineteen years he was as absolute as Walpole in the Cabinet and Parliament, far more powerful than Walpole from his hold upon the affections and admiration of the people.'

Mr. Lecky proceeds to draw one of the most critical and exhaustive portraits of young Pitt that we have ever seen. His college life, his experience in Parliament at twenty-one, his character as a minister, as a legislator, his skill as a financier, his first policy, and his misconception of the French Revolution, are all brought into effective review. Mr. Lecky dwells upon his untiring study as a boy-study that was neither desultory nor aimless-and upon the methods through which he acquired his facility in the use of words so essential to a great debater. At the same time our historian tells us that "those who read his speeches will derive little from them but disappointment. What especially strikes the reader is their extreme poverty of original thought. They are admirably adapted for their original purpose, but beyond this they are almost worthless." The career of the Prince of Wales, and the characters of Joseph II. of Austria, the Empress Catherine II., and Gustavus III. of Sweden, are painted in vigorous lines. The Polish question is discussed at length, and the causes of the French Revolution are brought out in imperishable colors. "It is one of the great interests in reading history in original diplomatic dispatches that it enables us to trace almost from the beginning the rise of great questions, which first appear like small clouds scarcely visible on the horizon, and gradually dilate and darken till the whole political sky is overcast," says Mr. Lecky, who then proceeds to record the first secret dispatch in 1791, which was the little cloud in the metaphor.

In the history of Continental Europe, Mr. Lecky says the nineteenth century may be truly said to begin with the French Revolution; in

English history with the opening of the French war in 1793, English parties and politics then assuming a new complexion. The close of the peaceful part of the ministry of Pitt is considered by Mr. Lecky an appropriate termination for a history of England in the eighteenth century, although he continues his narrative of that portion of his work relating to Ireland as far as the Legislative Union of 1800. One of the strong and attractive features of the second volume is the space allotted to the history of manners and morals, to industrial developments, prevailing opinions, theories, conditions, and tendencies of the different classes of the English people. It is thus the reader obtains a more comprehensive understanding of the movements and proceedings of statesmen and parliaments, and becomes better informed as to the true secret of power and its sources-the permanent forces of a great nation.

LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. By CARL SCHUrz. 2 vols., 16mo, pp. 424 and 382. (American Statesmen Series.) New York and Boston. 1887. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

Considering their authorship and the circumstances immediately preceding their publication those two volumes must take a conspicuous place at once in the admirable series to which they belong. As a literary man, Mr. Schurz has held for thirty years a position well up in the roll of American authors, and probably at the very top of the list of foreign-born writers who have adopted America as their home. Mr. Schurz first became known as a writer and orator during or shortly before the presidential campaign that resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln, and his speeches were replete with a wonderful knowledge of and insight into the then hopelessly complicated political affairs of the nation. Since that time his political training has led him to make a close study of the various developments of our political field, and it is not strange that the brilliant career of Henry Clay should have attracted his attention. Probably the plain truth is, that the publishers asked him to write the volumes for the series, but his familiarity with the subject was no doubt largely acquired long before the opportunity came for him to place his conclusions in book form.

As a statesman's estimate of a statesman, the work is very suggestive. Mr. Schurz came upon the stage shortly after Mr. Clay left it. Mr. Clay's career crowned the period of the nation's early manhood, and ended just before the question of negro slavery culminated in actual warfare. Mr. Schurz took up the burden almost at once, and although he did not exactly follow the path marked out by the earlier statesman, he followed it nearly enough to be in close sym

pathy with the methods of thought and action that prevailed in the earlier day so far as they were lofty and noble.

The politics of the time have never been more keenly or, upon the whole, more justly dealt with than in Mr. Schurz' analysis. He does not hesitate to give what he regards as the true version even when it does not present the subject of the memoir in so honorable a light as might be wished. It is in short a worthy review of the career of a man who was beyond question a power among the intellectual lights of his generation, and who commands to this day a large measure of admiration from a generation that has only known him by tradition.

It was our agreeable duty a few months since, to write in terms of the warmest commendation of the Story of Chaldea," by Madam Ragozin, and we now welcome her continuation of that excellent historical study, with more than ordinary interest. In the Story of Assyria," the author exhibits the same breadth of research and critical scholarship as in her preceding work with added charms in the way of smoothness of style, the natural effect of persistent and conscientious study in connection with continuous practice. The book opens with a chapter entitled, "The Rise of Asshur," which embraces the first conquest of Babylon. "The Sons of Canaan," their migrations, religion, and neighbors, occupy the third, fourth, and fifth chapters, although the subject is diversified in many particulars. Of all the "Sons of Canaan," the Phoenicians achieved the widest renown and performed the most universally important historical mission. They conquered the world-as much of it as was then known-not by force of arms, but by enterprise and cleverness And they knew more of the globe upon which we live than any other people of their time, for they alone possessed a navy, and ventured out to sea. They were the first wholesale manufacturers, and they gave the alphabet to the world. The author informs us, that the prosperity of most of the Greek Islands dates from the establishment on them of Phoenician colonies. But, although their chief reputation is based upon their maritime expeditions, they were quite as intrepid travelers by land as by sea. 'On the Asiatic continent, they practiced caravan trading on an immense scale; the great caravan routes of the East were almost entirely in their hands. They were the privileged traders of the world.

They were not a literary or intellectual people. Although they invented the alphabet, they used it chiefly for purposes of book-keeping and short inscriptions. They left no poetry, no historical annals, no works of science or speculation. They do not seem to have cared even to publish their own very remarkable experiences and exploits; these brought them wealth, what cared they for fame?" Another interesting chapter of the volume is entitled, "The Pride of Asshur," and treats among other themes of the fall of Samaria, the expeditions into Media, and the career of Sargon, and his wonderful palace. The work is very rich in information, and is admirably written.

York. 1887. D. Appleton & Co. In the character of John Sevier, Mr. Gilmore has found a comparatively unworked field for study of a half military, half political nature. "In the Rear-guard of the Revolution," he dealt more especially with the military passages of Sevier's life, and, as we noted at the time,

was now and then in danger of permitting romance to overshadow history. Much of the material utilized in the former work has been found available for the latter. The author has made use of all the materials already published, and has drawn as well from the rich stores of tradition that lay open for him among the mountains of Tennessee. Tradition, indeed, must of necessity bear a conspicuous part in any history, and especially in one that deals with frontier life in a newly discovered country.

John Sevier was one of the conspicuous men of his time, but, owing to the remoteness of his field of activity from the centers of colonial population, culture, and wealth, he has not heretofore been placed where he deserved upon the roll of fame. Mr. Gilmore's two books should go far to make good the deficiency. As fine instances of the stuff that the founders of western civilization were made of, Sevier and his contemporaries must ever serve as illustrious examples.

THE UNIVERSAL COOKERY BOOK. By GERTRUDE STROHM. Svo, pp. 245. New York. 1887. White, Stokes & Allen.

We cannot exist without cookery or cooks, and are always glad to welcome any good and really helpful work on the subject. Miss Gertrude Strohm has compiled a volume which is practical to say the least, furnishing abundant recipes for household use, the greater part of

which have been selected from eminent authorities. The work is divided into nineteen chapters, beginning with soups and closing with miscellaneous dainties for the sick, and home remedies. It has one strikingly novel feature, consisting of a series of quotations from popular writers, forty or fifty in all, which have a distinct literary flavor quite unusual in connection with cookery.

THE APPEAL TO LIFE. BY THEODORe T. MUNGER. 16mo, pp. 339. Boston and New York. 1887. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

Mr. Munger is not, we believe, considered a very "safe" author for young persons of an inquiring turn of mind. His previous works have been regarded as somewhat subversive of cutand-dried opinions, and however admirable they may have been as guides to truth in the abstract they necessarily aroused the suspicions of many excellent people who believe that all the truth was known by the framers of the Westminster Catechism. Mr. Munger points out that among the learned professions the clergy alone decline to submit to inductive methods of reasoning, but he thinks that clergymen are slowly becoming aware that their long immunity is nearing a close, and they must consent to have their teachings dogma and revelation alone. Whatever may be questioned in the light of reason-not of

the truth in this regard, our author, in the fourteen sermons here published, approaches his various subjects in a reverential mood, which is maintained to the end. The first ten sermons are designed to show the identity of faith with the action of man's nature in the natural relations of life; to show "that the truth of God is also the truth of man." The four concluding discourses were not written for pulpit delivery, but were designed to meet the needs of the great number of inquirers who, at the present time, are asking what are the relations of evolution to Christian belief. Mr. Munger's line of thought leads him much in the same direction so ably mapped out by the late Mr. Beecher. It is to be hoped that the orthodox faculties will not condemn him unheard, for his speech is of a nature that is gaining many adherents, and no mere condemnatory assertions can silence him or nullify the results of his teaching.

FAMILIAR SHORT SAYINGS OF GREAT MEN with historical and explanatory notes. By SAMUEL ARTHUR BENT, A.M. 12mo, pp. 665. Boston. 1887. Ticknor & Co.

Not the least valuable and convenient part of this work is its explanatory and biographical notes. Since it was first published a few years ago it has passed through four editions, and now the fifth appears in an enlarged and revised vol