litical History of England" deal respec"deal respectively with the periods from the Norman Conquest to the death of John, from the death of John to the close of the reign of Edward III., and from the accession of George III. to the resignation of Pitt in 1801; and those of the Oman "History of England" with the Tudor and Stuart periods. This fact of disconnected publication serves of itself to emphasize the tendency of co-operative histories to resolve into detached units. course, the conflict between the policy of centralization inaugurated by the Conqueror and the separatist tendencies. of feudalism. Hence grew on the one side the long era of discord and civil war, on the other those institutions which Englishmen to-day prize so highly. It is comparatively easy to narrate the military aspects of the struggle and to set forth the characteristics of the kings, barons, and churchmen who played the leading rôles therein. But to expound the institutional and political development brought about is quite the reverse. "The Political History of England" might fairly be called an Oxford History of England, for almost all of its authors are connected with one or another of the Oxford colleges. Among the few exceptions is Mr. Adams, who is Professor of History in Yale. The period which has fallen to him (1066-1216) is of great significance. In this period were laid the foundations for a national England, a constitutional England, and an independent England. The changes involved in the coming of the Normans were violent and sweeping, but they were beneficial, and beneficial through, not in spite of, the anarchy, turmoil, and bloodshed which it is so frequently the historian's duty to chronicle. The century and a half from the battle of Hastings witnessed the the implanting, hot-house growth, and decline of feudalism in England, witnessed the birth and first development of a new nation, witnessed the genesis of enduring political and legal institutions, and, above all, witnessed the dawning recognition on the part of mon- Mr. Tout's contribution is less sucarch, baron, and prelate that a potent cessful. It covers the reigns of Henry force, the force of public opinion, had III. and the first three Edwards, and come into being. The climax at Runny- thus includes the dramatic and momentmede-climax and prelude too-may ous events of the Barons' War, the have been a class demonstration and a conquest of Wales and of Scotland, the class victory in so far as concerns the successful rebellion of the latter, the concessions wrested from the king and preliminaries of the Hundred Years' embodied in Magna Carta; but it was War and the earlier campaigns of that a national triumph in that it vindi- struggle, with Crécy, Poitiers, and the cated the principle that the king, like the capture of Calais. The period allotted humblest of his subjects, must not violate to Mr. Tout also saw the rapid growth the law. In this sense the Great Char- of the idea of nationality and governter-which is, as Mr. Adams clearly ment by Parliament, the fall of feudalshows, a feudal document from begin- ism, the strengthening of the Church, ning to end-has rightly come to be and a marked development of constituregarded as the corner-stone of consti- tional law. With his treatment of these tutional liberty. phenomena little fault is to be found. The vital fact of the period is, of Turning-points are plainly indicated, Mr. Adams, it is satisfactory to find, has acquitted himself creditably both in narration and exposition. He has not, to be sure, availed himself of the rich opportunity for a vivid, glowing, and picturesque study, but if his performance is deficient in literary charm it is thoroughly scholarly, and the results attained call for high praise. The evidence is weighed scrupulously and in the light of the latest knowledge; there is no desire to ventilate theories or defend hypotheses; and the presentation, if matter of fact, is almost always lucid and adequate, perhaps the most striking excèptions in this respect being the treatment of the curia regis and of the papal grant of Ireland to Henry II. · The account of feudalism is especially good, Mr. Adams making very evident the necessity for keeping firmly in mind the distinction between the political and economic phases of the system. milestones of progress firmly and correctly established, sound judgments rendered. It is in dealing with matters of foreign policy that Mr. Tout is weak, and more particularly in discussing the Welsh and Scottish wars. Here the bias of a hopelessly English point of view is discernible, finding expression, for example, in the characterization of Robert Bruce as a "clever adventurer " and "sacrilegious murderer and traitor." It is not that Mr. Tout ignores or suppresses facts, or neglects verification. On the contrary, he discloses a veritable passion for accuracy. But his interpretation of the facts too often is, however unconsciously, so far colored as to be suspect. Another defect is the absence of clear-cut portraitures and of a definite indication of the influence of the leading actors on the course of events. Persons rather than personality are revealed in Mr. Tout's pages-traits and works presented so loosely as in most cases to make but a superficial impression on the student's consciousness. In spite of all this, the volume is distinctly useful. It brings together in sufficiently condensed form an amazing quantity of data gleaned through original research, and is of no small corrective value; while the account it gives of political and constitutional evolution is, as has been said, deserving of commendation. Something more than bias may be charged against Dr. Hunt's study of the reign of George III., and it must be a matter for regret that he has elected to deal with this particular period. The first few pages suffice to show that he is an uncompromising conservative in politics, a tory of the old school, and prepare the reader for a most unsympathetic view of the American and French Revolutions. George III. is painted as a much-misunderstood monarch, an altruistic king who "hoped to be able to carry out his ideal system of government, to destroy party distinctions, and establish his rule over his people for their benefit and with their good will." Advocates of a larger liberty at home and abroad are branded as demagogues, and the colonial revolutionists are rebels and insurgents. "Seditious" is a word in frequent use. The Declaration of Of those in Independence is "crude." England who sympathized with the colonists we are told: "In England every war gives an opportunity to some vain and foolish persons for condemning their own country and showing sympathy with its enemies." If, in the events leading up to the War of Independence, "the British government appears to have shown a short-sighted insistence on legal rights and a contemptuous disregard of the sentiments and opinions of the colonists," the latter for their part displayed "generally a turbulent, insolent, and unreasonable temper." The fall of the Bastille "made hardly any impression on French public opinion," the revolution that followed is a "by-word," and the propaganda "authorized" by the decree of the Convention of 1792, pledging France to assist all peoples that desired freedom, is denounced as “a gross insult to the British government and nation." Time and again, in short, we come upon passages abounding in partisanship, and even in connection with comparatively insignificant details of domestic politics. It must be admitted that the events of the times were such that it is still difficult to write of them with a perfectly open mind. Even so, Dr. Hunt's presentation makes too great a demand not only on the caution but on the patience of the student. On the other hand, his volume, like those of Mr. Adams and Mr. Tout, contains a great mass of important, well-digested, and well-arranged information not usually found in general histories. This is particularly the case in respect to the development of the system of government by cabinet, the break-up of the Whig "connection " system, and the reconstruction of the Tory party. Like the contributions of Mr. Adams and Mr. Tout, again, the book is provided with an excellent critical bibliography, both to original and to secondary sources. The Oman "History of England," judging by the two volumes that have appeared, promises to differ materially from the Oxford work in treatment as well as in scope. Since it proposes to cover all phases of the history of the country in about half the space to be consumed by the other in narrating the political history, with only casual reference to economic, social, religious, and intellectual development, it is evident that much less attention will be paid to detail. This, however, will be no weighty detriment provided the really vital circumstances are set forth with accuracy and clarity and in correct perspective. These fundamental requirements are admirably met both by Mr. Trevelyan and by Mr. Innes. It is impossible, even were it desirable, to compare their productions directly with those already published in "The Political History of England," for the reason that at no point is the same ground traversed. But we may say that Messrs. Fisher, Pollard, Montague, and Lodge, who have been selected to discuss the Tudor and Stuart periods in the Hunt and Poole history, may well feel satisfied if they attain the standard set in " England under the Tudors" and "England under the Stuarts." The latter has been noticed in an earlier issue of The Outlook, and we would simply remind our readers that it is an exceptionally brilliant piece of work by one who is a master at once of style and of scholarship. That Mr. Innes's" England under the Tudors" is scarcely its peer in point of style is not surprising. It is, however, no less scholarly, and in some respects is perhaps more satisfactory, notably in regard to the discussion of economic conditions. The period offers an unquestionably strong temptation to indulgence in "fine writing," but Mr. Innes at all times keeps his pen under control, and the result is a serious, sincere, direct, and graphic narrative in which Tudor England stands revealed in all its strength, its weaknesses, and its possibilities. The achievement of Henry VII. in restoring peace and order to a land shattered by the internecine strife of the Lancastrian wars; the nation-building that went on under his son; the storm and stress of the Reformation and the Catholic Reaction; the Golden Age of Elizabetheach reign, each movement, is set forth with the central facts in bold relief. As in Mr. Trevelyan's book, there is a striking series of portraits, of which the most impressive are easily those of Henry VIII., Mary Tudor, Mary Stuart, and Elizabeth. In every instance the point of view is cf one who would combine the spirit of the age with the knowledge afforded by chronological distance in order to arrive at a just and impartial judgment. Not always is success to be recorded, perhaps least in the case of "Good Queen Bess,' who as here painted is far from the paragon of virtues and charms extolled by courtiers and poets. But in the last analysis, when all the defects possible have been taken into account, the verdict must be favorable to Mr. Innes. Comment on Current Books Dr. Mackennal, who Alexander Mackennal passed away not quite B.A., D.D. two years ago, will long be remembered by many friends in this conntry, and especially in the Free Churches of England, among which he was recognized as a leader. He was a man of large manhood, high ideals, and statesmanlike; independent and open-minded, courageous and generous. His biographer has judiciously given large space to his correspondence, possessing a many-sided interest. Conspicuous in this are the chapters entitled "A Spiritual Directorate," a unique series of letters by which, at the end of patient years, he succeeded in bringing a friend out of utter skepticism into clear and settled religious faith. (Alexander Mackennal, B.A., D.D.: Life and Letters. By Dugald MacFadyen. James Clarke & Co., London, England.) The Diviner Immanence The immanence or indwelling of God in his universe is as real for one part thereof as for another for tigers as for saints; not, however, the same in kind or in degree. We see the "diviner" immanence in saints. "In the creative relation God is equally near all men. In the ethical relation he is much nearer some than others "-a conception which the author substitutes for the Biblical idea of a fuller indwelling. His general aim is to clear the immanence-doctrine of misunderstanding, and to emphasize its higher reaches. One who sympathizes with the constructive purpose, and recognizes substantial merit in J the essay, may regret that it is cumbered with some excrescences. That the Biblical writers all were men of exceptional religious opportunities, endowments, and piety is hardly credible. Nor can the author's theory of an "impoverishment" of God by the incarnation be otherwise regarded than as a specimen of the peculiar sort of rationalism with which high orthodoxy is often allied. (The Diviner Immanence. By Francis J. McConnell. Eaton & Mains, New York. 75c., net.) Nicho Dr. Beverley War. Famous Introductions ner, well known to Shakespeare's Plays among Shakespeare students as the author of " English History in Shakespeare's Plays," has prepared a very useful compilation of the best-known introductions to the plays from the time of Nicholas Rowe to that of Edmund Malone, and has put into very convenient and accessible form a body of writing of interest to readers of the plays and of value to students. las Rowe, an Under-Secretary of State and the Poet Laureate of an unpoetic time, was the author of the first formal biography of Shakespeare, and of what would be called a handy-volume edition of his plays. The idea of what was handy in books at that time is suggested by the fact that Rowe's "Life" was the preface to seven stout octavo volumes. This was at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Edmund Malone, on the other hand, was the editor of the last important edition of Shakespeare during the eighteenth century, and between the two editors there raged a battle royal. Among other contestants were Pope, Warburton, Johnson, Steevens, Capell, and Isaac Reed, who, with Rowe and Shakespeare's earliest editors, Heminge and Condell, are the contributors to this very interesting volume, which has the value of recording the growth of opinion in regard to Shakespeare, and may be regarded as almost a complete chapter in English literary criticism. (Famous Introductions to Shakespeare's Plays. By the Notable Editors of the Eighteenth Century. Edited by Beverley Warner, D.D. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $2.50, net.) Very jolly, unconvenThe Four Million tional, and lively tales these, dealing, as the group-title hints, with common things and common people. The author, Mr. O. Henry, has a knack of utilizing singular coincidences, and mingles the burlesque element with true bits of life and nature in a way as surprising as it is entertaining. Coney Island, the cheap boardinghouse, the East Side drug-store, the park, the young couple in the cheap flat, the Clo Iver Leaf Social Club-all these and other phases of the life of the "four million " in New York furnish curious incidents for little stories, each with its individual point, and all pervaded with genuine fun and here and there a touch of sentiment or pathos. (The Four Million. By O. Henry. McClure, Phillips & Co., New York. $1.) In the Shadow A painful and distasteful but undoubtedly powerful study of a Haytian negro who is highly educated in England, has a certain social standing there, and dreams of becoming a revolutionary hero, and of making a great nation of Hayti. Under the pressure of a series of frightful incidents he "reverts to type" and becomes a semi-savage with pathetic helplessness and alternating moods of brutal ferocity and shrinking cowardice. There is a great deal that is unpleasant about the tale, and, although it is told with vividness, one doubts whether such a psycho-physiological analysis is really desirable. (In the Shadow. By Henry C. Rowland. D. Appleton & Co., New York. $1.50.) James, the Lord's Brother Whether the author of the Epistle of James is identical with the James whom St. Paul refers to as "the Lord's brother " (Galatians i. 19), the bishop of the mother church at Jerusalem, seems to be a problem unlikely to be solved with unanimity. Modern critics stand largely for the negative. Among them may be named our countrymen, Professors Bacon, Gould, and McGiffert. The present volume by Dr. William Patrick, Principal of Manitoba College, Winnipeg, maintains the affirmative, and with ample learning makes a very plausible argument. His conclusion is the one that Christian men would naturally wish to be true, but it must be confessed that serious difficulties are in the way. These Dr. Patrick combats with great ability, but with a success that seems somewhat contingent on the predilection of his readers. (James, the Lord's Brother. By William Patrick, D.D. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $2, net.) Of St. Jerome's "Lives The Life of St. Mary Magdalen the Magdalen appeals of the Saints," that of specially to the general reader. Because of a capital translation by one Cavalca, this biography became particularly well known among Italian devotional romances of the Middle Ages. Who was its real author?— St. Jerome or, more probably, some Italian Franciscan medieval writer? No one knows. In popular "burgher" style the story recounts the relations of Jesus with the family of Lazarus, whose sister Mary is here identi fied with the Magdalen. Save for its account of the Passion, the narration is a perfect tissue of inventions; indeed, the novelist himself naïvely explains that he is narrating how it pleases him to think certain things may have happened. The Magdalen, for instance, as Vernon Lee" also points out in her preface, is not at all the sort of woman that many people think; when she took to scandalous courses, it was from despair at being forsaken by her bridegroom, who left her on her wedding day to follow Christ, and who was no other than the Evangelist John! Moreover, let no unnecessarily wrong imputations be put upon the Magdalen's conduct; in those days it took very little indeed (in fact, nothing which wicked mediæval times would notice!) to get a woman into disrepute. We see this sinful Magdalen, then, repenting her sins, such as they are, living with her sister and brother, and we see Jesus and his mother as their guests. The quaintly striking feature of the volume lies not only in its restfully familiar language, but in the fact that, like some early Italian fresco of the Passion, the chief figures in it seem to be the dramatically contrasted Magdalen and the mother of Christ. The real emotional interest is apparently thrown upon them, not on the Apostles, and often scarcely upon the One who was its principal figure. (The Life of St. Mary Magdalen. John Lane Company, New York. $1.50, net.) Literature: Its Principies and Problems Thoughtful readers will acknowledge this to be a work of rare merit. The field it covers is immense, but it is covered with well-balanced attention to the parts and to the whole, the specific and the general, the field itself and the great workers in it, who illustrate the application of the principles of their art. Not only the field itself, but its relation to other fields of mental activity-science, philosophy, politics, criticism, ethics, etc. are brought into a comprehensive view. A clarifying and a stimulating work it is, critical and widely informing, which Dr. Hunt, of Princeton, presents on a subject of general interest and active discussion. It is practicable here only to indicate the general conceptions he unfolds and applies in criticism and suggestion; first, his Miltonic conception of authorship as using literature for the high end of mental and moral enfranchisement. Its specific quality is idealistic, in danger now of being damaged by an excessive linguistic interest. The highest literature and the highest ethics unite for the solution of the great problems of human character and destiny. Against the "mundane" school of literature the deepest instincts and interests of humanity protest. Literature as a fine art has to avoid a false course on either side, the fleshly and the finical. "Modern tendencies are in the main unliterary. . . . The age is one of lighter miscellany, produced in forms the most manageable and marketable." With this high ideal of literature as the artistic embodiment of the world's best thought Dr. Hunt passes to the discussion of literary forms and their various types in poetry and prose, poetics and prose fiction. The prevailing belief that writers not accredited as poets had better limit themselves to prose composition is rejected; an æsthetic value is recognized in the practical exercise of the poetic spirit. Finally, Dr. Hunt takes up open questions and present practical problems. The emphasis here as elsewhere is upon the great underlying principles, with criticisms and cautions worth heeding, and insistence on spontaneity and freedom disciplined by conscientious fidelity to exalted ideals. (Literature: Its Principles and Problems. By Theodore W. Hunt, Ph.D., Litt.D. Funk and Wagnalls Company, New York. $1.20, net.) A group of rather improbA Little Sister able tales tied together by of Destiny an altogether fantastic introduction. They vary in merit, but as a whole will not enhance the author's reputation as a whimsical humorist. (A Little Sister of Destiny. By Gelett Burgess. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. $1.50.) A second volume of Mark Twain's entertaining selections Library of Humor approved by Mark Twain. They are from many recognized humorists as well as from writers less well known in this field who have, once at least, written something about "Women and Things" worthy of preservation in a library of fun. This series of volumes bids fair to be extremely popular. (Women and Things. By Mark Twain. Harper & Brothers, New York. $1.50.) Municipal Ownership 1905, will be found a review of In our issue of December 16, Hugo R. Meyer's "Government Regulation of Railway Rates," a strong presentation of the case for freedom of transportation unregulated by any Governmental supervision. Professor Meyer has since turned his attention to the problems involved in what is now best known as municipal ownership, and in a compact volume presents the findings of a personal inquiry into the results of municipal ownership in leading British cities, with especial reference to the utilities of transportation and lighting. The experience of these cities, he argues, is such as utterly to discredit the doctrine that "the |