frank and truthful manner, and his art in narration, rather than in the subject, which is, in several aspects, disagreeable; and the hopes and anticipations of many of the warmest friends of the negro race will, we are sorry to say, not gain so much from this chronicle as might have been expected.

Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by LESLIE STEPHENS. Vol. I. Abbadie-Anne. Smith, Elder, and Co.

The first instalment of this great national enterprise reaches us only just as we are going to press. We can, therefore, do little more than express our satisfaction at its appearance. It is unheralded by note or preface. It is, however, enough to know that it is intended to be truly national, i. e., to include a biographical notice of every Englishman of the past or present generation-no longer living-who has any claim to be remembered. The list of contributors to the first volume is as catholic as its purpose. The colossal magnitude of the work is intimated by the announcement that it will be completed in about fifty volumes. The more important articles of the present volume, for instance, Archbishop Abbott, Prince Albert, and Queen Anne, fill respectively sixteen, fourteen, and thirty-three double column pages. We must reserve further remarks for the next volume.

History of the Parsis, including their Manners, Customs, Religion, and Present Position. By DOSABHAI FRAMJI KARAKA, C.S.I., Presidency Magistrate and Chairman of Her Majesty's Bench of Bombay, and late Member of the Bombay Legislative Council; Author of 'Travels in Great Britain,' &c. With Coloured and other Illustrations. Two Vols. Macmillan & Co.

The author writes with the noble purpose of making two communities -the Parsis and the English-understand each other better. There is much in the character and temper of the Parsis which commend themselves to Englishmen. They are straightforward, strong of will, full of resource, shrewd, and practical, law-abiding, peaceful, and pure in morals and life. Hitherto, although much regarding them was to be found in learned tomes, in the writings of Martin Haug and others, a popular account was still much needed; and the author has expanded with great care and labour a little volume which he wrote more than twenty years ago. There are few points of interest relating either to their early history and long-continued sufferings from the hatred of the conquering Mohammedans, who followed them even into India, to their religion and religious ceremonies, to their manners and customs, and to their present position, which he does not touch; and some chapters in the second volume. dealing with Zoroastrianism and Zoroaster and the real beliefs of the Parsis, will be found of the utmost service. The Parsis are like the Jews in having dwelt for centuries in a strange land; but unlike the Jews, they have not

History, Biography, and Travels.

173

excited hatred or envy. Our own popular poetry tells us how the Mohammedans of Persia look upon the Guebres, or fire-worshippers, as a lower caste. The author makes it clear to us that, in reality, they are not fireworshippers at all, but are pure theists, worshipping one God under the symbol of fire. They have kept their beliefs and ceremonies very pure through long ages in a foreign land; but there are some things in which they have been influenced by Hinduism and Mohammedanism in India, and in regard to which reform has been and is found necessary. One of these was the habit of the males and females of a family eating apart, and among a certain class of the betrothal of children, both of which are alien from early custom. The author tells us that there have been cases of betrothal even before the children saw the light! It is very odd to find that so small a religious community as the Parsis is divided into two contending sects. These are the Shehenshais and the Kadmis, who, however, do not differ on any matter of doctrine or ritual, but only on a point of chronology ! Their mode of burial and 'their towers of silence' have drawn much attention from travellers; but the author finds a good deal to say in favour of such a method, which is probably no more shocking to us than our mode of sepulture is to them. The author writes well, with clearness and accuracy, intent only on presenting his subject in the most attractive lights. Of course he has much to say of the Jeejeebhoys and other influential and wealthy Parsi families. His chapter on the Parsi women is in every respect admirable; and it is clear that they deserve all the praise given to them. We wish we could have dealt more fully with several points ; but must forbear, claiming only space for one reflection as follows:-The history has a relation to European development. What Persia lost through religious inequality and persecution was precisely the life-blood of a peoplean independent and thoughtful middle-class, whose existence would have insured stability and progress under circumstances of trial or national peril. There is much in the case that is precisely parallel to the loss to France of the Huguenots. Holland and England and other countries gained what France lost, and knew how to utilize and encourage its best traits, and this loss France deeply felt in her great revolution. So Persia has suffered from the loss of the great band of Parsis, who have done so much for commercial enterprise and political expansion and comprehension in India and elsewhere by their forethought, their integrity, their industry, their purity of morals and of life; and the book from first to last furnishes a master argument against religious disability and persecution in any and every condition.

Greater London. A Narrative of its History, its People, and its Places. By EDWARD WALFORD, M.A. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings. Vol. II. Cassell and Co.

Mr. Walford's second volume is occupied with the south and west of London, beginning with Woolwich and including Bexley, Chislehurst, Beckenham, Farnborough, Croydon, Carshalton, Epsom, Esher, Kingston,

Richmond, Kew, Wimbledon, Merton, Tooting, &c. Like its predecessors it is a gossipy record of history, biography, anecdote, and description, to be opened anywhere, and read with both instruction and amusement. Extracts from writers of every period and class give vivid pictures of both past and present. A little more care would have avoided repetition here and there, as, for example, the mot of the cynical Frenchmen about Richmond. A pleasanter book of miscellanies could scarcely be opened. Religion in England from 1800 to 1850. A History, with a Postscript on Subsequent Events. By JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D. Two Vols. Hodder and Stoughton.

It is scarcely possible to write contemporary history. The wave is not always to be distinguished from the tide, local passion from general feeling, denominational movement from social change. More especially difficult is a just estimate of the first half of the present century, on account of the feverish excitement caused by some of the chief political, ecclesiastical, doctrinal, and social movements of our recent history. Another almost insuperable difficulty is the simple magnitude of the theme which Dr. Stoughton has chosen. Each section of the Church is exhibited in the movements and changes and inter-relations, ecclesiastical, political, and social, of its half-century of history. When it is remembered, too, that to the present century belong most of the great Religious Societies, the Missionary, Bible, Tract, Sunday School Union, and other societies, and that almost revolutionary reforms, such as Catholic Emancipation, the Abolition of Slavery, the Reform Bill, the Abolition of the Corn Laws, Popular Education, &c., have been accomplished very largely by the Churches of England-we shall see how unmanageable the mass of materials is. No living man is better qualified by true catholicity of spirit, by generous religious sympathy, and by the various friendships and contacts of a long life, for such a work. From beginning to end it does not contain one ungenerous word or prejudiced estimate. Sterner and more passionate spirits than Dr. Stoughton, will perhaps as concerning his preceding volumes, be disposed to say that the fact of antagonistic positions makes him so afraid of doing an injustice that his own friends sometimes suffer rather than his enemies. We felt this ourselves in some of the judgments of his earlier volumes. In the present work we could, in this respect, scarcely wish a word altered. Dr. Stoughton is as wisely charitable as he is studiously kind, and no one, we think, can complain of his presentation of either character or position. One reads, too, with the forms and figures of living men, and with the memories of actual conflict before the mind, and therefore with an interest that is peculiarly vivid and sympathetic; and if in the very necessity of circumstances Dr. Stoughton's present volumes cannot claim to be history in its final judgments, they are eminently valuable and interesting as mémoires pour servir. The historian of the future will draw from them records and impressions that will be invaluable. The structure of the book divides the half-century into two periods—the first, ending

History, Biography, and Travels.

175

with 1830. Is in sections, dealing successively with Political Relations, the Episcopal Church, Religious Societies, Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Calvinistic Methodists, Wesleyans, the Society of Friends, Moravians, Irvingites, Church and State, Theological Thought, Bishops and Church Activity, Typical Churchmen, Revivalisms, Voluntaryism, the New Denominations, the Queen, Parliament, Law and Religion, Tractarianism and Ritualism, Broad Churchism, Social Life and Church Work, Roman Catholicism, Dissent and the Establishment, Free Churches of the Period, Methodist Controversies, Quakerism and Moravianism, Plymouth Brethren, Union, Jubilees, the New Jerusalem Church. The mere enumeration is enough to take one's breath away--a half-century's history of all these to be compressed in two duodecimo volumes ! Necessarily we find a considerable amount of mere passing characterizations. To such as know the men, Dr. Stoughton's verdicts will have interest, and it may be said they are generally just and generous, but to those who did not know them they will convey absolutely no information beyond what an epitaph would convey. We think that these mere catalogues of names might have been omitted, and the space saved for the evolution of historical results. But then this difficulty presents itself, some of the Churches have happily no history that can be recorded. The Congregational Churches, for instance, have quietly done their work and developed their religious and social power. They have no record of schism and heresy, or other ecclesiastical or theological convulsions. History gives the largest space to the most tumultuous life. The historian therefore has here to chronicle unimportant things, if he would not incur the reproach of practically disparaging his own Church, and possibly the greatest spiritual movements. Nevertheless it remains true, that as one reads some sections of the work one feels that Dr. Stoughton's is merely a swallow's flight and touch over a wide and deep sea. That he can vigorously grasp the significance of great movements, judge causes, and exhibit their evolution eve amid complicated conditions, is seen in the able and vigorous chapters which expound the Tractarian movement. One may wish that Dr. Stoughton's treatment of all religious phenomena had been like this. But what is a historian to do when he has no movement such as this to record, and happily convulsions have not marked the life of all the Churches? On the whole, the volumes are of great interest. Personal reminiscences and characterizations blend with great research and with critical estimates at once impartial and appreciating. We regret that we cannot illustrate our remarks by extracts, which would the best exemplify the ease, candour, and extensive knowledge which Dr. Stoughton has brought to his delineation of the religious life and movements of the century.

Cassell's Illustrated Universal History. By EDMUND OLLIER, Author of 'Cassell's Illustrated History of the United States.' The Middle Ages. Cassell and Co. (Limited).

Mr. Ollier, whose volume on ancient history we had to notice with favour some time ago, here presents us with a companion volume on The Middle Ages,' which is marked with the same qualities of skilful grouping, sparkling narrative, and pleasant style. To those--and they are many-who cannot afford the money to buy many volumes, nor the time to read them, and who yet desire to have a comprehensive view of the stream of history, with its many windings and backwaters, this must truly prove a prize. In some respects it has more of direct human interest than the former volume, inasmuch as we have to follow here the rise and early development of the great kingdoms of Europe--our own country, France, Italy, and the rest-and the author has to paint the papal dominion at a time when kings had to come and do penance to the Pope, as well as to trace out the early signs of the decadence of the Popedom. Mr. Ollier, besides the rise and progress of the Mohammedan and the origin of the Turkish power, has to tell of the inroads of the Normans into England, of the great victories of Charlemagne, of the Crusades, and of the doings of the German emperors. He is especially good in the portion of the volume which deals with the decline of feudalism, and in the chapter which is devoted to art and social life in the Middle Ages. Here, of course, he draws not a little from Chaucer, and indeed he might have drawn more, for the whole system of chivalry-knighthood and courts of love-are unveiled more or less directly there, as Mr. Matthew Browne (from whom Mr. Ollier might well have quoted a few lines on some points) decidedly found when he prepared himself to write 'Chaucer's England.' It will perhaps surprise some to read that the serf in those days had a better chance of rising than the agricultural labourer of to-day. He could save money enough to buy permission from his lord to migrate to a neighbouring town, and there seek his fortune.' It is surely sad to find that, amidst all the improvements and increased wealth of England, this can still be said of the agricultural labourer. The woodcuts are excellent and numerous; and the whole work may be described as history made easy for the million.

The Ancient Empires of the East. By A. H. SAYCE, Deputy Professor of Comparative Philology, Oxford. Macmillan and Co.

It will be remembered that the most generally interesting portion of Professor Sayce's recent edition of the first three books of Herodotus was the appendix in which he sketched in outline the histories of the great empires of the East, as revealed by the monuments they have bequeathed to us. The present volume consists of that portion of the previous work separated from the text it was intended to illustrate, but in other respects unaltered. The reprint will be very acceptable to all who wish to know the present state of our information with respect to ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria, Phœnicia, Lydia, and Persia. No one could be more competent than Professor Sayce to treat of the various subjects here included. His linguistic attainments render him perhaps the one scholar